There’s and old saying that goes, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” If Jesus were to re-write the saying it might read,

In today’s gospel, a rich landowner pulls down his barns and builds bigger barns in which to store wealth for his future. “You fool!” God says, “this very night your life is being demanded of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Yes, it’s another of those lessons that target the rich. That’s all right then because none of us are particularly rich and so surely this lesson doesn’t apply to us. Or does it?

We’ve all worried about money at some time or another. We worry about university fees, the cost of getting married and the cost of keeping a roof over our heads. We worry about paying our bills and providing for our children. We worry about providing for our old age and the cost of keeping Great Aunt Ethel in a nursing home. We even worry about the cost of dying. Today Jesus warns us that in worrying about money we allow money and material wealth to exert some kind of hold over us. Everything we own possesses a little part of us. If we have a house we are slave to a mortgage. If we own a car we are slaves to maintaining it. Once we have finally struggled our way towards a healthy bank balance we suddenly become afraid to spend it, let alone share it with the needy. Without knowing it, we can become penny pinching and greedy. We don’t need to be particularly rich to become as foolish as the landowner in today’s parable.

Today’s gospel isn’t a good excuse to rush out and blow the children’ school uniform budget on a palette of beer in a ‘let’s live for today for tomorrow we die’ mentality, but it is a good excuse for liberating ourselves from life’s financial burdens and living for a better reason.

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12 Match 3’s won €84 each

Next week’s jackpot €12,000

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25 Match 3’s won €40 each

Next weeks jackpot €12,000

Removal from Kilminchy Nursing home on Thursday evening 29th July at 6.30pm to arrive at the Parish Church  for 7pm. Requiem Mass on Friday morning at 10am followed by burial in Kilcormack.

Darragh Jack Ging, 15 Rockdale, Portlaosie.

Aoibhe Eileen Ging, 15 Rockdale, Portlaosie.

We hardly dare to pray. Something in our psyche tells us that it’s a naïve activity, especially if we have had negative results in the past. A nagging voice questions whether prayer might be the last ditch strategy employed by the desperate. In truth many of us turn to prayer when everything else has failed. Sometimes we turn to prayer in   situations where human endeavour has proved futile and we need a 

The problem with prayer is that we tend to treat God as though he were a genie in a magic lamp, asking him to help our football team score four goals in the closing minutes of a match, or help us win huge amounts of money to sort out our financial difficulties. Then when God doesn’t answer we imagine that he doesn’t care about us, or that prayer doesn’t work. Perhaps Jesus’ disciples shared some of our frustration when they say, “Lord teach us to pray.” In response Jesus gives us a model by which to pray. It’s important to recognise it as a model and not a prayer as such.   Reciting a prayer is not the same as praying. The model prayer Jesus gives us, ‘The Lord’s prayer’, invites us to pray to God as our Father, acknowledging his holiness and praying with the shared commitment to have his will done on earth. We are invited to pray for our ‘daily bread’, in other words, for the things we genuinely need. Pray for forgiveness, and promise to forgive others. Pray with persistence. Prayer is about building a relationship with God, speaking to him often throughout the day.

Lastly, and most importantly we should approach God with the faith we   approach a loving parent. “What father,” reasons Jesus, “would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish?” or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?” Even parents with very average parenting skills know how to give children what they need. “How much more,” says Jesus, “will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” Today we are invited ……. Just ask!

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16 Match 3’s won €63 each

Next weeks jackpot is €11,000

Removal from Regional Hospital on Saturday evening 24th July at 5.30pm to arrive at Parish Church for 6pm. Requiem Mass Sunday at 12.30pm .Burial to St. Peter & Paul’s Cemetery.

Removal from her residence on Friday evening 23rd July at 5.45pm to arrive at the Parish Church for 6.30pm. Requiem Mass on Saturday morning at 10am followed by burial to St. Peter & Paul’s Cemetery.

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9 Match 3’s won €112 each

Next weeks jackpot €11,000